X-Future: Snippets
by LycoRogue
Summary: Companion stories for the X-Future: The Second Generation Begins story. Chaos ensues at the Xavier Institute and among The Brotherhood as the second generation of mutants take center stage. ***** X-Future Snippets are free-writing one-shots that may or may not ever play out in the role play. Therefore, none of the snippets are considered "canon" in the X-Future 11616 continuity.
1. Intro: What Are The Snippets?

**Welcome to The Snippets.**

X-Future Snippets will be an anthology of one-shots that I write involving the characters presented in both the X-Future role play game and the corresponding story "The Second Generation Begins" that is posted here. These are mostly writing exercises and will generally NOT be considered part of the 11616 universe canon.

However, most of these one-shots are based on events that have happened in the game/story, and therefore will contain spoilers of what happened in-game/story leading up to that tale. Be warned.

At the beginning of each one-shot/snippet/chapter I will place a warning to let you know the following:

A) Whether or not the one-shot has become canon (if it has, it will show up in TSGB eventually).

B) Whether or not the one-shot has any spoilers; if so, are they major, minor, and what part of the story would you need to be past for them to not be spoilers any longer.

C) What the rating for the one-shot is. Each character has their own level of modesty and reserve. Stories with characters such as Lia and Crystal will most likely remain K+ ratings, whereas I can't control anything Trish does and her tales will most likely be rated M for violence and language. Because of this, the entire story will have the strict M rating, but some of the chapters could be a bit more "kid friendly". I'll also explain WHY a chapter has a certain rating, in case you want to skip over it due to the content.

Finally, I'd like to state that I apologize if these one-shots don't give much of a lead-in to explain how the characters ended up where they are, or even explain who the characters truly are. Like I said, these are writing exercises. To truly understand the characters and the situations please be sure to also read TSGB. It explains the characters, their powers, their relationships, etc.

Thank you. I hope you enjoy!

_**~LycoRogue~**_


	2. Flashes of Trish

****A/N: Just a few little scenes Trish kept "showing" me as I was creating her. Basically? She can't stand Devon and since she can't do anything to him she plans on taking it out on poor Nys... ****

* * *

**WARNING:  
Following series of one-shot scenes aren't considered canon to the X-Future story.  
Minor spoiler about Devon  
**_Rated K+ for mild threats and one or two minor curse words_

* * *

_**THE NEW RECRUITS: Headcanon of How It Would Have Played Out**_

"What's with the new kid?" Trish lounged across the window sill, arms crossed, as she nonchalantly turned to Quicksilver.

"Haven't you heard?" Quicksilver quickly responded. "Ran in to the kid when we were collecting Graham. Fire user who can shape shift." The white-haired man turned with an evil grin on his face, "Might even be Pyro's kid back when he had a thing with Mystique."

Trish's features hardened. Her cheekbones became prominent as she inhaled her cheeks, biting on them to prevent herself from setting Quicksilver on fire. "So THAT is the famous Devon, huh?" She glared as she watched Devon follow the rest of the new recruits in to the side room. "Doesn't seem so special to me."

"Go ahead. Kill this kid. Do to him what you did to your real family. See how long Pyro will keep you around after that." Quicksilver gave a chuckle before running out of the room.

Trish snorted flames out of her nose, her hands burning as she struggled to hold back her fire. "Game on, Devon. Let's see what ya got."

* * *

_**Kickstarting A Mission**_

Pyro turned to Trish and gave her a stern look. "Lighter! Now!"

Trish snapped her left hand and a ball of flame appeared in front of Pyro.

"Him too, love," Pyro nodded to his right.

Trish gave a sideways glare at Devon, the teen boy impatiently tapping his foot. With a huff, Trish rolled her eyes and looked away from her rival and snapped her right hand, creating a ball of flame for Arson as well.

"Thatta girl," Pyro smirked and manipulated his flame in to a long whip.

Trish angrily exhaled through her nostrils, like a bull about to charge. With a quick roll of her shoulders she whipped her arms straight down by her sides, a ball of flame wrapped around each hand.

"Let's do this," Pyro smirked and ran forward.

* * *

_**Keep Your Enemies Closer**_

"Hey, Pheromone." Trish jumped over the stair banister, skipping the last five steps to the floor.

"Oh! Lighter." Nys quickly stepped back, a bit startled. "What's up?" she cautiously asked, the red-head nearly nose-to-nose with her. Even with her hands casually in her pockets, Trish scared the shit out of Nys.

"You and Arson. You two are super close, right?" Trish kept the distance between the girls small, cocking an eyebrow.

"Yeah." Nys drew out the word, curious and concerned. "Why?"

"You two, like, an item?" A smirk grew on Trish's lips. It gave Nys a chill.

"Why? You like him or something?"

Trish abruptly stood upright, finally creating a gap between the girls. She tossed her head back, knocking her hair out of her face as she laughed.

Nys blinked, unsure how to take that response. She took a step back, attempting to create a larger space between her and Trish.

In a flash, Trish's hand shot out of her pocket and grabbed hold of Nys' shirt, pulling the girl nose-to-nose again. Softly, Trish asked, "He'd do anything to keep you safe, wouldn't he?"

"You need to let go of me, Lighter." Nys tried to sound as tough as she used to when on the streets, but something about Trish made her voice still quake a little.

With a low chuckle and another smirk, Trish again stood up straight, releasing Nys' shirt and patting the wrinkles out. "Good. It's good that you have such a loyal protector."

Nys rolled her shoulders back and cautiously shrunk away from Trish's touch. Trish flicked her fingers at her in a shooing manner. Slowly, Nys turned, but made sure to keep eye contact with Trish for as long as she could. Calmly and cautiously, like retreating from a wild animal, Nys walked out the door.

As Nys reached the entryway she heard Trish add in a serious tone, "It's very good that Devon has someone he cares for so deeply." A chill ran up Nys' spine as she left.

* * *

****A/N: Haha, if I had written that last scene now Trish would have nearly vomited at the mere suggestion of her liking Devon. Want proof? Check out her scrabble game with Deadpool.****


	3. Ripley Vs Lincoln

****A/N: Yeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaah... so this is NEVER going to be canon. Partially because the issue brought up in this one-shot is already past resolved, partially because there's a possibility that Lincoln is gay and therefore this would never be an issue to begin with... but this was my headcanon for a little while...****

* * *

**WARNING:  
Following One-Shot will NEVER be canon to the X-Future story.  
It does contain minor spoilers. **  
_Rated K+ for one instance of mild course language_

* * *

Lia stood on the shoreline, dipping her toes in the water. She hugged herself and refused to make eye contact. "Ripley, we need to talk."

Ripley sat next to her, allowing the water flow around him. He didn't look up at her face; just turned to watch her feet splashing. "I'm not going to like who you decided on." He was calm, but there was a pain in his voice.

"I'm so sorry. You've been so sweet to me and I care for you so much."

"'It's not you, it's me', right? Are you seriously giving me that line? Or is it the 'you'll always be in my heart and a part of me will always love you'? Because it was such a comfort when Chayse said it to you."

Lia stopped playing with the water. She sat down and put a hand on Ripley's shoulder. He debated whipping it away, but craved the contact too much to follow through. "Don't be like that, Rip. I didn't want this. I didn't want to decide. That was all you. That was all him. I couldn't help this."

"You couldn't just keep going on forever with both of us. You were going to have to decide eventually."

"I know. I just didn't want it to be so soon. Maybe if it wasn't so soon things would have been different."

Ripley turned his head to finally look at her. "What does time have to do with anything? If you love him more than me now than what would more time do aside from drag me along longer? And if you're saying that you could grow to love me more than him someday, if you feel like that's a possibility, than why not just pick me now? If you have that kind of doubt of loving him in the future, why not just pick me?"

Lia removed her hand, turned from Ripley, and hugged her shoulders again. "It's not that simple. It's not a simple thing of whether or not I love him more now or if I believe I'll love you more later."

"Then what is it? Aside from forcing you to make a painful decision, how would forcing you to pick now instead of later make things different?"

She turned to him again. She tried to stay calm and strong in all of this, but her eyes were glossed over with tears threatening to escape. "Lincoln needs me, Rip. You have so much, and you can handle this. You can survive this. Lincoln-" She shook her head and bit her lower lip before continuing, "Lincoln doesn't really connect to others well. I could be his only chance at love. How could I force him to give it up?"

Ripley's face contorted in anger. "So, what? You're staying with him because you feel bad for him? If he wasn't such a delicate little flower you would have picked me? You could have been mine? I could have held you and kissed you and been with you if you didn't feel so guilty about leaving him alone?"

"Rip, don't twist this. It's hard enough-"

He grabbed her shoulders and forced her to look at him. "If Lincoln could find someone else – as easily as you think I can – who would you have picked?"

"Ripley, don't do this."

"Who would you have picked? If you weren't afraid of breaking one of us, who would it have been? Would it still have been him?"

"I don't know, Rip." Lia tried to look away, but he kept a firm grip and angled himself to always be in her eye-line.

"You just said that with more time maybe things would have been different. Did you mean 'if Lincoln can grow to survive without me'? Did you?"

"I dunno. Maybe."

"Damn it, Lia! What are you doing?" He dropped his grip and pushed himself to his feet, turning away from her.

"What do you want me to do here? How can I possibly destroy him like that? Like I said, you are strong enough to survive this."

He didn't look at her. He instead clenched his fists by his sides. "How can you not understand an ounce of what you're doing?"

She jumped to her feet, choked down the knot in her throat and shouted back. "I'm trying to protect someone I care about. Like I said, you are the one who forced me to make this decision. Don't get pissed at me for not choosing you in the end."

Ripley whipped back around and threw his arms out in front of him, opening and reclenching his fists. He let out a throated scream before running his fingers through his hair. "Dear god! How could I possibly be in love with someone so idiotic?"

Lia stood tall with a disgusted look on her face, "Excuse me?"

He covered his mouth with his hand and started clawing at his cheek. After a few seconds, he curled his fingers to his lips where he bit down on his nails, trying to find the right words without yelling at the girl. A few more seconds passed before his hand balled up again and he hammered the air around him. "You, my dear, are an idiot. You clearly love me. You clearly want me. You obviously want to be with me, and I want to be with you, and we are both going to be miserable because of your stupid ill-conceived attempt at protecting Lincoln. Do you realize how beyond moronic this whole situation is? First of all, you're assuming that Lincoln can't survive without you but I can. What, in God's name, makes you believe that I could fare any better than him without you? What lead you to the conclusion that I can go day by day knowing that you're with another man? I'm sorry if I was too much of your rock that you believe that I could do the same for myself."

Lia opened her mouth to interject. Ripley whipped his arm through the air and a small wave came out of the river and covered her mouth like a hand. "I'm nowhere near done. So sit down, Miss Madrox, because this is gonna take a minute or two." Steam poured out from around her mouth, and Ripley knew she was getting seriously angry. She responded by crossing her arms and turning her head; only looking at him out of the corner of her eyes.

Ripley waved his hand and the water retreated back to the river. "The other horrible assumption you made was that Lincoln would be broken if you ever left him. True, if he feels even half the way I do, it could be possible that he'll be devastated. But I also think that's a bit presumptuous and cocky of you to think that you're his only chance at love. If I could find someone else – according to you – than why couldn't he? He's a nice guy. He's kind hearted. He's (mostly) gentle. He can fly and has kick-ass butterfly wings. He's a bit of a catch. Why else would he catch your attention, right? So give him more credit than to be some charity case. If you're staying with him simply because you feel bad for him, or because you're afraid of what he might do without you around, you are doing all three of us a disservice."

Lia's features softened as she slowly turned her head back towards Ripley. "Rip, I don't know what to do. You make it seem like it's such an easy answer, but I do love Lincoln too."

"But do you love him more?"

She dropped her head and clenched her eyes closed. She held her forehead and choked down the start of her tears. "I don't know. Maybe."

"You need more than maybe. I need you to know more than maybe." He walked back over to her and gently rubbed her arms.

"What if I just can't choose?" Her cheeks had small traces of water already sliding down them.

Ripley held up his hand and slowly pulled it back towards him, closing his fingers so that the tips all touched. As he did so, the tears peeled off Lia's cheeks, drying them as they gathered in a small marble-sized ball that hovered before his closed hand. "Well, you can't do that. You can't cry. It's cheating if you start to cry." He gave her a small smile.

She gargled on a small laugh before sniffling back more tears. "You'll make for a good shrink someday." She reached out a hand and gently poked him in the stomach. "You'll make an even better one if you could tell me how I'm supposed to choose."

He flicked the ball of her tears away and pulled her in for a hug. "Well, obviously you choose the handsome aspiring psychologist you found living under a pier and who moonlights as one of the campus guards. Let the prince find someone else to be his princess. You wouldn't want that life anyway. Royalty is so strict. You'd much rather hang out with the surfer – we're a much more laid back bunch."

Lia griped Ripley's shirt firmly and buried her face in his chest. "You're such an ass. You know that, right?"

Ripley breathed her in as he pulled her closer, his one arm firmly around her shoulders and his other hand cupping the back of her head. He kissed her crown and rested his chin in her hair. "I'm alright with that as long as I get to keep you."

* * *

****A/N: Funny thing is I wasn't the only one who was seeing a possible relationship growing between Lia and Lincoln. The way the two interacted the guy who plays Liam and Tyler also thought Liacoln (I such at these name-meshes) would happen eventually. Apparently the guy who plays Lincoln didn't see it at all because Lincoln has a crush on his flight teacher Angel instead... whoops...****


	4. Playing Scrabble With Deadpool

**WARNING:  
Following One-Shot **IS** considered canon (we just role played it) and does contain minor spoilers. Read at your own risk.**  
_Rated M for violence and extreme language (Trish has the mouth of a sailor; honestly... -_- )_

* * *

Trish rolled her stiff shoulders as she stirred on her replacement cot mattress. With a start, she sat up and watched her left shoulder as she effortlessly re-rolled it. It was still a bit stiff, but it had the full range of motion she had before Deadpool stabbed her.

"What the hell?"

She admired the work the X-Men's medic did on her destroyed left shoulder. She hated to admit her foes did a job well done, and she feared why they'd bother restoring her ability to use her left arm. She didn't have long to ponder before her cell door opened.

Deadpool nearly skipped in to greet her, a collapsed card table under one arm and a Scrabble box under the other.

"Morning, sunshine," he chirped at her as he set up the table next to her cot.

She groaned in response. "Don't you have anything better to do around here than torment me every waking moment?"

"Probably. I mean, thanks to your buddies I'm down one of my Rangers. But The Fuzzy Dude and his crew are back, so they can work on security while I'm here to keep you company!"

Even with the full mask on, Trish knew he was grinning ear to ear. She rolled her eyes. "Fine, whatever." She sighed and lay back down on her cot.

"Oh, no-no, Sweetheart." Trish growled at yet another cutesy nickname. It reminded her of Quicksilver. "You're not going back to bed! You just woke up. We're gonna play a game." Deadpool gleefully slammed Scrabble on to the table, the tiles rattling inside the beaten up cardboard box.

"Not happening." Trish rolled over on to her right side, her back towards her warden.

"Come on. One quick game. It'll be fun." Deadpool opened the box and started sorting everything out. He scooped the tiles back in to the bag, laid out the board, and placed two tile stands on the table before tucking the box under Trish's cot.

"I'm not playing with you."

Deadpool reached in to the bag and grabbed his seven tiles, giggling as he did so. "Aww, yes! These are good ones!" He quickly cleared his throat, "Uh, I mean, wow. How could I get such crappy tiles? What the hell am I supposed to do with all consonants?"

"How about choke on them, you prick?"

"I think you're gonna turn around and play this game with me, Little Girl." Deadpool's voice turned serious, like a father scolding his teenage daughter.

"Bite me, asswipe."

"I'm gonna count to three."

"Uno, dos, tress," Trish quickly counted, "Now what?"

Deadpool narrowed his eyes and let out a slow, loud sigh. "I was trying to be nice here."

Trish stuck a thumb up past her left shoulder so Deadpool could see it. "Gee thanks. Now get the fuck out."

"Old Trusty again I see."

"Huh?" Trish shifted in her cot and was instantly greeted by Deadpool's katana again pressed against her left shoulder.

"Wanna play this game again instead?"

"You little fucker."

"'Cuz I'm a fan of this game too. So which is it? Twist The Captive's Shoulder To Pieces, or Scrabble?"

With a snort, Trish pushed the tip of the blade away from her with two fingers. "Fine, I'll play fucking Scrabble with you. Dickwad."

Deadpool quickly sheathed his blade and bounded for his stool in the corner. "Goody, goody, goody!" As he placed the stool by the table he motioned for her to pick her tiles. "Prisoner goes first."

"How chivalrous," Trish flatly responded as she fished her tiles out. With her hair back in its normal position in front of her face, only the left side of her grin peaked through her locks. Leaning back on her cot she quickly wrote out "Asshole".

"Oo, that's a good one," Deadpool beamed and quickly calculated. "Let's see, the E is on a double letter, and you used all seven tiles; so that's another fifty points. Alright, so you kick this off with sixty-one points. Nice. And here you didn't want to play."

"Just go, already."

Deadpool made a display of looking over his letters and calculating how to arrange them using her word. After a minute of Trish tapping her fingers on the table he finally shouted out "Eureka!" Somehow managing to pull both Cs and the one K from the bag his first go, Deadpool spelled out "Cupcakes" off of her A. "Let's see, triple letter, triple letter, seven-letter bonus, carry the one. I got seventy-six points. So take that!" Deadpool tapped the board by his word, "Oh! And you still owe me one."

Staring him down, Trish added an F and U in front of the first C in "cupcakes" and then placed a blank tile after the C.

"Hmm, another sixteen points for the Firestarter," Deadpool mused. Trish responded with a throaty growl at yet another nickname. "Now, what letter did you want this blank tile to be? An I or a K?"

"K. As in Fuck. As in Fuck you and your motherfucking cupcakes." She leaned back and crossed her arms, blowing a strand of hair that was tickling her nose out of the way.

"Ah, alright," Deadpool nodded and placed his chin in his hand, staring intently at his tiles. "Wanna play like that, huh?" He quickly grabbed a tile in each hand and slapped them on the board, building "You" off of "Fuck".

"Whatever." With one hand Trish shifted some of her tiles around before building "Wanker" off of the E in "Cupcakes", using the second blank tile for another K.

"Wow! A triple letter on a W? How did you get so good at this?" Deadpool tapped his fingers against his chin before dropping "ANT" off of Trish's W.

"Really? Cupcakes? You? Want? Are you really this bad?" Trish shook her head and wrote "Dipshit" off of the H in "Asshole".

"Let's see, that brings you up to one-hundred and eight points. Hmmm. Oh! How about this?" There was a sense of malicious whimsy in his voice, and Trish could again tell that he was smirking through his mask. Off of the D in "Dipshit", he placed "evon"; making his trail of words played "Cupcakes, you, want, and Devon."

Trish's lips puckered and steam poured out of her nose like she was exhaling cigarette smoke. Her cot mattress grew hand-print scorch marks as she gripped the bedding. A deep growl rumbled from her stomach and rattled in her throat.

"What?" Deadpool squeaked with a bit of hurt in his voice. "It's a perfectly legal word! It's some sort of cow. From England, I believe." As the smoke continued to billow out of his opponent's face he sat straight up. "Oh! Oh, you thought I was talking about Pyro's son, didn't you?" He laughed and continued in a mocking sing-song tone, "Guess we know who's on your mind. Wonder what Pyro would say if he found out you gave up on him already in favor for his own child!" Deadpool tisked as he shook his head.

Trish formed a softball sized fireball and chucked it at his face. He still had the fireproof uniform on, so it didn't cause any damage, but it did catch his attention. "Alright. Alright. I'm counting already! Hold your horses; it's almost your turn." He chuckled as he quickly jotted down his score. "Cool! We're tied! Now things are getting interesting." He rubbed his hands together and looked up from his pad. Smoke was drifting up from Trish's burning mattress. "Okay, now it's your turn," he gestured towards the board.

She quickly scooped up four tiles. Dropping three of them on to the board, she spelled "Burn" off of "devon". She then clenched the fourth tile in her hand until it ashed. Uncurling her fingers she blew the dust in to Deadpool's face.

"Sure. Fine. Don't feel like playing that anymore? Then we'll just go back to my other favorite game." With a quick movement Deadpool's katana was against Trish's shoulder. She was unwavered this time, and spat at his face. "Alright, I'll make sure Elixir doesn't heal you fully this time, okie dokie?"

Trish cried out as Deadpool shoved his blade in to her shoulder.

* * *

****A/N: This one-shot was the result of this week's writing challenge over at the Writer's Huddle online writing community. The challenge was to somehow use a provided picture of a Scrabble board as inspiration (a writing prompt, if you will). You could use it however you wished: characters playing Scrabble or some other game, using some of the words played on the board, using the design of the board to inspire the layout of a maze, etc.**

**I talked things over with my husband and we joked about having two of the characters playing Scrabble. My one Brotherhood character Trish was recently seriously injured by Deadpool and Hubby thought it would be fun if she had to endure playing Scrabble against him.**

**We loved the scene so much that it was played out (just like described in the story here) in-game yesterday.**

**~x~x~x~~x~x~x~~x~x~x~~x~x~x~**

**_Legal Stuff:_**** X-Men, Elixir, Deadpool, Pyro, and the Brotherhood are all the property of Marvel Comics. Trish is my own OC that I created for the game.****


	5. Shawn Attacks

****A/N: Knowing who I'm talking about when I say "Shawn" is a major spoiler, so if you don't already know and don't want it spoiled DO NOT READ. There is also another major spoiler as to who Sebastian is. Finally, a minor spoiler consisting in the Willow-Lia-Chayse dynamic.****

* * *

**WARNING:  
Following One-Shot isn't considered canon to the X-Future story.  
It does contain major spoilers. Read at your own risk.**  
_Rated T for violence and language_

* * *

Willow sat at her desk, trying desperately to focus on her homework. It had been a week since prom and things were finally starting to settle back in to some semblance of normalcy. At least, as normal as things get at the Xavier Institute.

Crystal was finally cleared to leave the infirmary, and Tyler made sure to never leave her side; her gallant protector. Liam tried to convince Tyler that not only would Crystal be safe no matter where she is on campus, but that he'd be a better protector if he got back to his training. Tyler knew Liam was right, but he still couldn't bear to leave his girlfriend unattended.

Kinney easily got settled back in to life as a professor, although he did nearly kill a student his second day back, and then a whole group of them the following day during their survival class. Detentions were once again a feared thing now that the "I'm not a teacher out here" practitioner was home.

Lia's concern for Ripley seemed to be just the thing to solidify their budding relationship, as well as forget her lingering hurt feelings over being dumped by Chayse in favor of Willow. Ripley and Lia spent a few days in The City checking out his new flat and a few shows. The rest of the week Ripley worked on physical therapy in order to be approved to continue his service as one of the Campus Rangers. Lia also spent the rest of the week training harder. She felt so unequipped to properly battle the Brotherhood and wanted to make sure she never had to worry about that again.

Chayse was just as determined to make sure the rest of the students would be better prepared for the eventual next attack from the Brotherhood. He was in constant training with the other students and Sebastian.

Willow stretched out in her computer chair as she thought of her future son. A man from the future was odd enough. A hot man from the future? Even more awesome, but suddenly creepy at the bizarre thought that said "hot" man is her future adult son. Just seeing how her child would grow up to look like was odd and awkward enough, but to have him return to her time about ten years her senior made life even more weird. Add in the fact that he was literally living proof that she and Chayse were destined to stay together, and Willow's mind was spinning.

Sure, she was really attracted to Chayse. Yes, she had grown extremely fond of him; maybe even fell in love with him. Still, she never really thought about the prospect of marrying him, let alone having his kid. They were still kids themselves. In high school. She didn't even know what she wanted to do after graduation, let alone a "forever" relationship with anyone. She was too much of a flirt for that. At least, she thought so. Seems Sebastian proved otherwise.

"This is just too weird for me."

Giving up on her homework, Willow pushed away from her desk and spun the chair before jumping off. In a fluid motion from her seated position, she easily tumbled on to her bed and tucked her head under her pillow. The soft fluff not reaching her scalp as the mini-cerebro intercepted.

"I hate this stupid thing." With a groan she flipped over and adjusted the skullcap designed to enhance her telepathy and telekinesis. "It's so dumb that I have to wear it all the time. I should only have to have this thing on when I'm training." Untucking her head, she stuck her tongue out to punctuate her statement to the air.

Closing her eyes to try to push out all of the chaotic thoughts going through her head – brought on by the past week's events – Willow caught a weird sensation. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but her body instinctively tensed as this uneasy feeling of hostility filled the air. Concentrating on her training, she tried sending out a telepathic radar in an attempt to find the source. She found it a moment too late.

With a loud crash her dorm room window shattered all over her floor as a tall, buff man burst through it. Willow bolted upright in her bed as the man slowly shook the glass off of him and rose to his feet. He wore a black bodysuit with yellow spirals running down the arms and legs. The black mask he wore in their first encounter wasn't present; it was unnecessary this time. Besides, he wanted to make sure that Willow saw the long, deep cut he had running from his forehead, across his left eye, and down his left cheek.

"Shawn." Willow barely had enough remaining breath to say his name.

"Why, hello again, dear sister." He gave a grin before his arms flared up with electric spirals that looked like drill bits. In an instant the electricity shot out from his hands. With a yelp, Willow put up her arms defensively and instinctively created a telekinetic force field to protect herself.

Still unskilled with this part of her powers, the force of the attack still managed to push her and she tumbled off the bed. Her Parkour training kicked in and she caught herself with one hand, bouncing off her palm and landing on her feet on Lia's bed.

"Shawn, how did you get past all of the defenses?"

"Silly child, you think anything could really stop electricity?"

"I dunno, my force field seemed to do a good job a second ago."

With a glare and a roar, Shawn shot out another pair of bolts. Willow was better prepared this time and put up another field as she leaped in to a backwards somersault. She tucked under her roommate's bed and called out again.

"Shawn, stop this! We can help you. Let us help you. We were close once, weren't we? We loved each other, didn't we?" Cautiously, she rose from her bunker. "I know I still love and miss my big brother."

"Loved me, huh? You sure in hell had an odd way of showing it, you bitch! Made my life a living hell with your illusions, and didn't think I'd resent you? How diluted could you possibly be?"

Another round of drill-shaped bolts erupted from his arms, but this time he aimed them at the floor. The lightning ripped through Willow's and Lia's beds, shredding and igniting the carpet in its path. Once more Willow was able to deflect with her telekenesis. With a quick turn she ran partially up the wall behind her before pushing off it, tumbling through the air, and landing closer to her older brother.

"Face it; you still can't touch me, Shawn. Please, just give up and let us help you."

"I'd rather die than accept your help." With a growl he started to rapidly fire off his bolts. Although none of them were able to bypass Willow's defenses they did tear up her room even more. Scorched cuts were now etched all over her floor and the wall behind her. The furniture caught fire and the room began to fill with smoke.

"Don't make me hurt you!" Willow inched closer and closer to Shawn, sliding over towards her desk at the same time.

"You could never hurt me more than you already have you bitch!" His anger was starting to get the better of him. He no longer attempted to aim at her. He was more satisfied to create static as an aura of buzzing electricity encased him, as if he were the nucleus of a plasma globe. A deep-belly growl exploded in to a primal roar as he released his aura. As if a massive storm got trapped inside the room, lightning bolts shot in every direction, intensifying the growing inferno.

With a few coughs, Willow focused harder on her protective telekinetic encasing, but the needed concentration – even with the mini-cerebro – started to greatly wear her down. She collapsed against her metal desk. It was still hot to the touch even with her force field, but it at least remained intact. Resting upon it was her laptop with a large scorched hole through the majority of the screen. Next to that was her thick history textbook. Although the hard cover itself was destroyed, it somehow managed to keep most of the pages safe.

With a swift motion Willow grabbed the heavy hardbound book and hurled it at Shawn. The man laughed as he easily destroyed the textbook with another blast of lightning. However, the distraction was just enough for Willow to switch gears and tap in to her telepathy; leaving just enough concentration to keep up her force field.

Shawn wailed out as Willow began to bombard him with telepathic barrages. His head flooded with intense pressure, ear-piercing high pitched sounds, and a constant bombardment of Willow and their parents' voices chanting about how much of a failure he was. The relentless overstimulation instantly gave him an almost paralyzing migraine as he collapsed to his knees.

"Give up, Shawn. I bested you again." Willow's words then echoed in his head.

Enraged further, he used the last of his strength to lunge at his younger sibling. Before she could refocus to reinforce her shield, Shawn was able to break through it and tackle her to the ground. Flames blazed around them and the smoke became more intense.

Willow coughed and pushed against her brother, but he was too strong for her to move normally. She attempted to use her telekinesis to push him off, but the lack of air made her too weak. Her mental onslaught must have been enough to also hinder his powers since he didn't even attempt to zap her while he had her pinned down.

They might as well have been just two normal humans, fighting each other for their lives. With that in mind, Willow reached out her hands and clawed at whatever she could grab. The only thing her fingers could find was the now useless power cord for her laptop.

With a firm yank she unplugged the cord. As Shawn moved his hands to her throat Willow's resolve firmed. She flicked her wrist and the cord whipped forward. She was already too weak for it to do much damage as she whipped it over and over again at her assailant. It did frustrate him though, and he released her neck long enough to rip her weapon from her hands.

She managed another deep gasp before both of his strong mitts were re-laced around her throat. Incapable of thinking of anything more effective, she started clawing at his face. Even with his blood dripping down on to Willow, Shawn didn't shift at all aside from gripping harder.

Willow squeaked out one last "help" before finally passing out. With a grin Shawn kept his firm grip, making sure she was gone. A moment later there was loud pounding on the door.  
"Willow? Willow, are you in there? Willow, answer me!" The door glowed a neon green before it exploded, showering Shawn with splinters. Chayse needed only a second to spot the siblings on the ignited floor. "Get off her, you bastard!" He dove at Shawn and managed to knock him off the unconscious Willow.

No longer in pain from his sister's mental attacks, Shawn easily zapped Chayse. Using his power to control kinetic energy, Chayse managed to push himself off of Shawn with no more harm than a taser. He lay on the floor, flames licking at his skin as he shook.  
"I should have known I should have finished you off first." Shawn took a step towards the convulsing teen and gripped Chayse's shirt. "It's too bad I didn't think to have Willow witness me finally succeeding in killing you."

"You are a slow learner, aren't you?" Chayse coughed out before phasing his body, easily slipping out of Shawn's grip and collapsing to the floor before solidifying again.  
Shawn growled as he created a massive orb of lightning between his hands. Chayse weakly crawled over to Willow, just barely reaching her before Shawn shot the energy ball at the two of them.

Instantly, Chayse phased both himself and his girlfriend as the floor was again destroyed by the lightning. The two fell through the floor and he solidified both of them as they hit the floor below. It was a brief escape as Shawn blasted the same spot one last time, opening up a hole in the floor. With a simple jump he nearly landed on top of the couple.  
The ceiling was already ablaze from Willow's room being engulfed by flame. Chayse crawled backwards across the floor with Willow cradled in his arms, praying that she wasn't really gone.

"Hold on just a moment longer. I'm about to finish this, I promise."

"Don't make promises you can't keep, punk." Another bombardment of electricity exploded around them, but once more Chayse was able to phase them to keep them out of harm's way.

"God damn it! Stop doing that and just die you prick!"

"Same to you, asshat!" Chayse opened up his hand to reveal the power cord from Willow's destroyed laptop. He quickly charged it and tossed it at Shawn. With a laugh the man was able to easily intercept the exploding cord with his own powers. Just as Chayse had hoped Shawn would do. While distracted, Chayse again phased and lunged forward, reforming just in time to tackle Shawn.

Before Shawn could throw the teen off of him, Chayse pinned him down and placed a hand on the man's chest. "How about I give you a matching scar to mine?" Energy raced from Chayse's fingers to Shawn's chest as it powered up with kinetic energy.

"You wouldn't dare kill me, X-Man!"

"Maybe, but I will stop you." As Chayse flipped off of his opponent he channeled the energy to Shawn's uniform instead of his chest. The clothes violently exploded, knocking out the rival. In a quick sprint Chayse returned to Willow's side, snatched her up, returned to Shawn, and phased them both to another floor down. Now safely away from the fire – at least for the time being - he began CPR.

It was the longest three minutes of Chayse's life; unsure if he should try to sprint her to the infirmary instead. Finally, he felt Willow gasp. Nervously laughing, Chayse raised Willow in to his arms in a tight embrace.

"Thank god you're alive. Now, let's get the hell out of here." Even though he was told he wasn't allowed to use his Ascension powers any longer, this emergency certainly called for an exception. Channeling the steady increase of kinetic energy to his limbs, Chayse struggled to carry both Driver siblings as he raced them to the safety of the infirmary.

* * *

****A/N: This one-shot was part of a weekly writing challenge over at the Writer's Huddle online writing community. The challenge was to somehow use one or more of the following in an "unusual way":  
- Empty Starbucks cup  
- Laptop power cord  
- Heavy hardbound book**

Since the challenge was only a few days after concluding a battle that occurred in-game, I decided to continue off of that thought.

~x~x~x~~x~x~x~~x~x~x~~x~x~x~

**_Legal Stuff:_**** X-Men, Cerebro, and the Xavier Institute are all the property of Marvel Comics. The OCs (Willow, Crystal, Tyler, Liam, Lucas Kinney, Lia, Ripley, Chayse, Sebastian, & Shawn) are all the intellectual property of the players who created them for our game.****


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